As the Caribou-into-Peet’s march continues across the District, an official with the Berkeley-based company shared with Elevation DC its caffeinated aspirations for Washington, now the second largest retail market for the company outside California.
Peet’s was founded in 1966 and long ago was the first coffee bean supplier to a certain then-nascent coffee chain with a mermaid logo. Unlike Starbucks, though, Peet’s keeps a small footprint: currently just 233 stories nationwide, as opposed to Starbucks’ 11,000 shops in the US alone.
“We never compromise our craft for scale, and we are able to maintain the quality of a small roast house,” says Denyelle Bruno, Peet's vice president of retail operations and marketing, in an email to Elevation DC.
Peet’s first DC site opened earlier this month at 1701 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. “The move into D.C. is part of Peet’s overall strategy to grow in highly desirable markets with discerning customers,” says Bruno. “D.C. is one of our largest grocery markets outside California, so naturally it makes sense to invest here. Additionally, D.C. is growing into a respected culinary and artisanal food/beverage town and this aligns with the superior quality and attention to detail we put into our craft.”
The final impetus? All those former Bay Area folks who’ve been transplanted here to work for the feds. “We’ve been humbled by the outpouring of positive feedback and love we’ve gotten from Peet’s fans here in D.C.”
Twenty-three more Peet’s are slated to open across the DC metro area through the balance of calendar 2014, Bruno says. Not all will be former Caribou Coffees. Projected jobs associated with the openings total about 350, she adds.
“We’ll continue to expand in the market as great potential Peet’s locations become available,” she says. “We are confident that Peet’s will make Peetniks out of Washingtonians.”
German conglomerate Joh. A. Bensicker purchased Peet’s in 2012 for $973.9 million and Caribou that same year for $340 million.
Amy Rogers Nazarov is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist with more than 25 years experience as a staff reporter and a freelance writer, covering technology, adoption, real estate, and lifestyle topics from food & drink to home organizing. Her byline has appeared in Cooking Light, The Washington Post, Slate, Washingtonian, The Writer, Smithsonian, The Washington Post Express, The Baltimore Examiner, The Sacramento Bee, Cure, The Washington Times, Museum, and many other outlets. She is a member of the American Society of Journalists & Authors and tweets at
@WordKitchenDC.